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HISTORY 



THE NEW-ENGLAND 



EMIGRANT AID COMPANY. 



REPORT ON ITS FUTURE OPERATIONS. 



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^PublisljEti bjj ©rljev of tijc IBtvEctois. 



BOSTON: 

PRESS OF JOHN WILSON AND SON, 
5, Watkr Street. 

1862. 



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HISTORY 



THE NEW-ENGLAND 



EMIGRANT AID COMPANY. 



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L-r^ 



REPORT ON ITS FUTURE OPERATIONS. 



^ubltsijEli hv ©rUer of tht directors. 



Of WA. 



BOSTON: 

PRESS OF JOHN WILSON AND SON, 

6, Water Street. 

1862. 



HISTORY 



NEW-ENGLAND EMIGRANT AID COMPANY. 



The Committee charged with preparing a sketch of the ope- 
rations of the Company from its origin respectfully reports as 
follows : — 

As soon as it became probable that the Nebraska Act, so 
called, would pass, in the year 1854, with Mr, Douglas's cele- 
brated amendment repealing the Missouri Compromise, and as 
early as March, 1854, Mr. Eli Thayer, then a member of the 
Massachusetts House of Representatives, circulated a petition 
for the incorporation, by that State, of the Emigrant Aid Com- 
pany. The petition was at once granted by the Legislature. 
A charter for the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company, hav- 
ing passed both branches, was signed by the Governor on the 
26th of April, The persons interested met at the State House 
on the 4th of May, and appointed a Committee to report a plan 
of organization, and system of operations. This Committee 
submitted on the 12th of May a Eeport, setting forth the plans 
of the corporators in some detail. 

These plans, as far as emigration is concerned, are condensed 
in the following passages, which are interesting now, as 
showing how bold were the anticipations of the infant Com- 
pany : — 



1. The emigrant suffers whenever he goes alone into his new home. 
He suffers from the frauds of others, from his own ignorance of the 
system of travel, and of the country where he settles; and, again, from 
l)is want of support from neighbors, which results in the impossibility 
of any combined assistance, or of any division of labor. 

The Emigrant Aid Company will relieve him from all tliese em- 
barrassments, by sending out emigrants in companies, and establishing 
them in considerable numbers. The Company propose to carry them 
to their homes more ehea|)ly than they could otherwise go, to enable 
them to establish themselves with the least inconvenience, and to pro- 
vide the most important prime necessities of a new colony. It will 
provide shelter and ibod at the lowest prices after the arrival of emi- 
grants, while they make the arrangements necessary for their new 
homes; it will render all the assistance which the information of its 
agents can give ; and, by establishing emigrants in large numbers in 
the Territories, it will give them tiie power of using at once those 
social influences which radiate from the church, the school, and the 
])ress, in the organization and development of a community. 

For these purposes, it is recommended, first, that the Directors 
contract immediately with some one of the competing lines of travel, 
for the conveyance of twenty thousand persons from Massachusetts to 
that place in the AVest which the Directors shall select for their first 
settlement. 

It is believed that passage may be obtained, in so large a contract, 
at half the price paid by individuals. We recommend that emigrants 
receive the full advantage of this diminution of price, and that they be 
forwarded in companies of two hundred, as they iipply, at these 
reduced rates of travel. 

2. It is recommended, that, at such points as the Directors select for 
2jlaces of settlement, tiiey shall at once construct a boarding-house or 
receiving-house, in wliich three hundred j)ersons may receive tempo- 
rary accommodation on their arrival; and that the number of such 
houses be enlai'ged as necessity may dictate. The new-comers or 
their families may thus be provided for in the necessary interval which 
elapses while they are making their selection of a location. 

3. It is recommended that the Directors procure and send forward 
steam sawmills, gristmills, and such other machines as shall be of 
constant service in a new settlement, which cannot, however, be pur- 
chased or carried out conveniently by individual settlers. Tiiese 
machines may be leased or run by the Company's agents. At the 



same time, it is desirable that a printing-press be sent out, and a 
weekly newspaper established. This would be the organ of the Com- 
pany's agents; would extend iiitoiniation regarding its settlement ; and 
be, from the very first, an index of that love of freedom and of good 
morals, which it is to be hoped may eharaeterize the Stale now to be 
formed. 

4. It is recommended that the Company's agents locate, and take 
lip for tiie Company's benefit, the sections of land in which the board- 
iii'j-hon^cs and mills are located, and no otliers : and further, that, 
whenever I lie Territory shall be organized as a Free State, the Direc- 
tors shall dispose of all its interests thei'e ; replace by the sales the 
money laid out; declare a dividend to the stockholders; and, — 

0. That they then select a new field, and make similar arrange- 
ments for the settlement and organization of another Free State of this 
Union. 

The Committee charged with the collection of subscriptions 
to the stock of the Company under this charter found that it 
was impossible to obtain subscriptions ; for fears were sug- 
gested that each stockholder under its provisions would be 
bound by a personal liability for all the debts of the Company. 
Mr. Thayer promptly attempted to meet this difficulty by 
obtaining a second charter from the Connecticut Legislature, 
which was then in session. So unanimous were the wishes 
of New England to check the proposal of the authors of the 
Nebraska-Kanzas Act to introduce slavery into the new Ter- 
ritories, that this charter, like the other, was granted most 
willingly, and, so far as is known, without any opposition. 
But it must be confessed, that there was not equal hopeful- 
ness as to the measures thus proposed to meet the great evil. 
Gentlemen who have long since assisted our efforts, and wel- 
comed our victory, believed then that we were engaged in a 
hopeless struggle. They said that we opposed a small corpo- 
ration against a single interest, virtually embodied in one 
gigantic corporation ; that, namely, of all the slave-owners of 
the South. They said that the question was simply one of capi- 
tal against capital ; and that our little capitals, even if we had 



a million of dollars subscribed to our purposes, would be as 
nothing against the associated wealth of" nil the Southern 
States, combined, as it virtually would be, to assist us. These 
prog'nostications of defeat liave not proved true. 

Under the Connecticut Charter, the Emigrant Aid Company 
of New York and Connecticut organized on tlie 18th of July. 
Its operations have never been extensive. For our purpose, 
this charter proved no more serviceable than that granted by 
the State of Massachusetts. 

As time pressed, the persons most interested in the 
enterprise associated themselves together as a private body ; 
placing their subscriptions in the hands of three trustees, — 
Messrs. Amos A. Lawrence, Eli Thayer, and J. M. S. Wil- 
liams, — who cheerfully assumed the trust, and took the imme- 
diate measures necessary for action in the great enterprise of 
the Company. They organized under the trust on the 24th 
of July, 1854; and appointed Dr. Thomas H. Webb their 
Secretary. They voted that his salary should commence from 
the 10th of May, — a fact on the record, which shows how 
long the trustees had been at work without formal organiza- 
tion. This first meeting of the officers of tlie Company took 
place auspiciously in the Rooms of the Massachusetts Histori- 
cal Society, beneath the smiles of the ancient portraits of the 
first founders of Massachusetts. 

Dr. Charles Robinson, now Governor Robinson, of Kanzas, 
had already visited Kanzas on the Company's account. At 
the second meeting of the Trustees, on the Tth of August, 
18o4, he was present; and, after receiving his Report, the 
Trustees directed him to return as quickly as possible to 
the West ; and made arrangements at the same time for the 
purchase, on the frontier of Missouri, in Kanzas City, of 
the hotel so long owned there afterwards by the Company. 
It was thought desirable thus to obtain a foothold for the 
gathering and equipment of parties before they entered 
the Territory. The Indians still held titles to all the lands 



in the eastern part of the Territory; and we could not legally 
obtain such foothold from tiiem. 

Arrangements had been made for the first pioneer emigrant 
party. It consisted wholly of men; and left Boston, July 17, 
1854. Under the lead of Mr. Charles H. Branscomb, they 
passed up the Kanzas River, through the Indian reservations, 
and established themselves at a point described in our records 
as " six miles above the Wakarusa, one of the southern tribu- 
taries of the Kanzas River, and about thirty-five miles from 
the mouth of the latter stream." This is the settlement now 
known as the city of Lawrence. Meanwhile the Trustees and 
other friends of the Company in New England exerted them- 
selves to obtain subscriptions to the stock, and to interest 
emigrants in every way possible in the new Territory. The 
Secretary had prepared an enlarged edition of a pamphlet 
called '' Organization, Objects, and Plan of Operations, of the 
Emigrant Aid Company." Public meetings were held in 
the principal towns of New England and New York ; Kanzas 
leagues were formed, auxiliary to the main work ; and the 
great political question called general attention to our propo- 
sals. The emigration from New England westward is almost 
always so large, that we had little more to do than to direct 
emigrants to a region so attractive as Kanzas. The addi- 
tional expense of the journey thither was more than com- 
pensated by the convenience of arrangements made for 
emigration, and the mutual support gained by parties who 
emigrated together. Such mutual support is given to no 
Western emigrants but to those organized under the auspices 
of our Company, or who have arrived from Europe with some 
similar organization. The American emigrant generally 
removes to the West with no companionship but that of his 
own family. He does not prefer this solitude ; but circum- 
stances have all tended to it hitherto. 

To organize this emigration under the favorable influences 
of the political excitement of the time, and the tidings which 



8 



every mail brought back from Kanzas, the Company esta- 
bhshed an office in Boston, which the Secretary made the 
headquarters of information relating to the Territory. From 
time to time, public notice was given of the da}'^ fixed for 
departure of the next party of emigrants. The Secretary 
arranged with transportation companies of the dijfferent lines 
for passage to Kanzas City, at as low rates of travel as first- 
class tickets could be secured for, — these rates being lower 
than the rates to individuals. These tickets were resold by 
him to passengers in our parties, without any profit. An 
agent was then appointed to take charge of the party which 
collected in answer to such a call. He was directed to 
attend to Avoraen and children who had no other protection ; 
and he assigned the times for the movement and rest of the 
expedition. In favor of our parties, some of the steamboat 
proprietors made special arrangements for women and chil- 
dren ; and in general, as may easily be supposed, directors of 
transportation lines interested themselves in securing the 
favor of a customer who did business on as large a scale as 
this Company. We thus collected five parties of emigrants 
in the summer and autumn of 1854, numbering about seven 
hundred and fifty persons. We may safely say, that we soli- 
cited no one of these persons to go. They went of their 
own motion, and at their own charge. In general, the}^ went 
under the escort of one of the regular agents of the Com- 
pany ; and such agents travelled at our expense. But we 
never paid tlie passage of any emigrant, nor paid any thing 
towards his passage : we simply organized the emigration of 
individuals, and relieved it, as far as we could, of its solitude 
and other inconveniences. 

In the Territory itself, our operations were limited by our 
want of funds. As early as the 24th of August, 1854, the 
Trustees appointed Mr. S. C. Pomeroy their second agent in 
the Territory, to co-operate with Dr. Robinson in the charge 
of our affairs. The directions given to Mr. Pomeroy were to 



9 



purchase six sawmills, and, if necessary, a gristmill, to be 
established at such places as ho might think proper; to pur- 
chase and hold for the Company such real estate as he and 
the other agents might find necessary ; to acquaint himself 
with the Territory, and give advice as to location to settlers 
as they should arrive. More than advice, neither our agents 
nor we could give. We had no jDower of any kind over the 
settlers who went out in our parties. They were in no way 
bound to us. But it proved, as we had foreseen, that at 
points well selected by our agents, who proved themselves 
singularly competent to this office, where mills were esta- 
blished by our funds, settlers, Avhether of our own parties or 
of separate emigrations, were glad to establish themselves. 
Our agents were directed in these original instructions to see 
that a schoolhouse was built in each town, and to encourage 
in everyway possible the establishment of places of worship ; 
duties to which, in eveiy instance, they carefully devoted 
themselves. 

For operations so extensive as these, the Company had but 
very limited means. On the 11th of November, 1854, only 
twelve thousand seven hundred and thirty-one dollars had been 
received into the treasur}^ ; about twice that amount having 
been subscribed, on which one-half had been assessed. The 
petitioners for a charter, however, in the preceding winter, 
had proposed a capital for the Company, more commensurate 
with the work they had in hand ; and the original charter 
fixed five million dollars as the amount of its possible stock. 
The speculators of Western Missouri, who had asked for the 
passage of the Nebraska Act, with the supposition that they 
were to obtain all its benefits, and had organized themselves 
with the intention of seizing the best lands, took alarm at 
provision so extensive. By way of stimulating opposition in 
Missouri to New-England emigration, they everywhere pub- 
lished the statement, that five million dollars were already in 
our hands, for purposes of stimulating movement to the West. 

2 



10 



Unfortunately for us, this statement was not true. Failing its 
truth, however, the impression of our wealth, largely given 
by our Missouri enemies, was a valuable contribution made 
by them to our operations ; the only contribution it was in 
their power to make to us. The impression they gave, that 
many million of dollars were to be spent in Kanzas by an 
Eastern Company, undoubtedly drew many thousands of 
emigrants into that Territory from the Middle States and the 
North-west, who went without direct communication with our 
agents or offices. 

The name of " Lawrence " was given to our first colony, at 
first called the " Wakarusa Settlement." The settlers arrived 
there, and took up their claims, on the 1st of August, 1854. 
They passed the first winter in preparing their new homes. 
They organized a lyceum, established a school, and regular 
religious services. 

It is not the place of this Report to enter into the history 
of Kanzas during the last eight years. It is merely to con- 
nect that history with the history of our own organization 
that we say, that the first election for delegate held in the 
Territory, Avhen the fraudulent votes from Missouri decided 
the result, was held on the 29th November, 1854. In Janu- 
ary, 1855, Gov. Reeder took a census of the Territory; and 
the number of inhabitants proved to be eight thousand five 
hundred and one. Gov. Reeder issued his proclamation at 
once for an election, to be held on tlie 31st March, for the 
Territorial Legislature. 

Our first party of 1855 left Boston on the 13th March. It 
numbered about two hundred persons, — men, women, and 
children ; and arrived in Kanzas City, 24th March. On the 
24th March, a party of a hundred and fifty-seven set out ; on 
the 27th March, a part}^ of eighty-four ; on the 10th April, 
one of eighty ; and on the 17th April, one of sixtj^-four. And 
from April to July there were sent by us, in difierent parties, 
some fifty persons. Meanwhile, a new charter had been 



11 



granted by the Massachusetts Legislature, by which the New- 
England Emigrant Aid Company was incorporated on the 21st 
February, 1855. On the 5th March, this Company organized 
by the choice of — 

President. — John Carter Brown, of Providence, R.I. 

Vice-Presidents. — Eli Thayer, of "Worcester ; and J. M. S. Wil- 
liams, of Cambridge. 

Trkasuuer. — A. A. Lawrence, Boston. 

Secretary. — Thomas H. Webb, Boston. 

Directors. — Samuel Cabot, jun., John Lowell, and William B. 
Spoonei-, of Boston ; William J. Rotch, of New Bedford ; J. P. 
Williston, of Northampton ; William D. Pickman, of Salem ; R. P. 
Waters, of Beverly ; R. A. Chapman, of Springfield ; John Nesmith, 
of Lowell ; Alvah Crocker, of Fitchburg; Charles H. Bigelow, of 
Lawrence; Nathan Durfee, of Fall River; Franklin Mussey, of Ban- 
gor, Me.; William Willis, of Portland, Me.; John D. Lang, of Vas- 
salborough. Me. ; E. P. Walton, of Montpelier, Vt. ; Joseph Gilmore, 
of Concord, N.H. ; Ichabod Goodwin, of Portsmouth, N.H. ; Thomas 
M. Edwards, of Keene, N.H. ; and Albert Day, of Hartford, Conn. 

Executive Committee. — At a meeting of the Directors, held 
directly after that of the Stockholders, the following gentlemen were 
elected as the Executive Committee of the Board: to wit, J. M. S. 
Williams, Eli Thayer, Samuel Cabot, jun., John Lowell, and R. P. 
Waters; the Treasurer and Secretary being ex-officio members of this 
Committee. 

At that time, twenty-seven thousand two hundred and 
twenty dollars had been subscribed to the capital of the old 
corporation, and the subscribers were made associates in the 
new Company. The summer proved a laborious and exciting 
one, as well to the settlers in Kanzas as to the Directors of 
the Company at home. On the 2d July, the Legislature, 
since popularly called the "Shawnee" or "Bogus Legisla- 
ture," met at Pawnee, in the Territory, and, on the 4th, 
adjourned to the Shawnee Mission. This was the Legislature 
elected by an inroad from Missouri. Our pacific investments 
of capital went on steadily through the summer and autumn. 



12 



We built in Lawrence the " Free-State Hotel," and established 
the towns of Topeka, Ossawatomie, Manhattan, Hampden, and 
Wabonsd. So fast as subscriptions to the stock were obtained, 
they were invested in engines and mills ; until in May, 1856, 
the amount of money expended by the Company in Kanzas 
amounted to $96,956.01. Of this, very much the largest pro- 
portion had been spent for our two hotels and for steam- 
engines and mills. A part had been expended in the erection 
of schoolhouses and dwelling-houses. The charges of admi- 
nistration had not been larger than was to be expected in the 
management of such varied interests. 

The year 1855 had proved, however, to be a very eventful 
year for Kanzas, and a ver}^ exhausting one to honest emi- 
grants there. The emigration from New England and from 
the North-west steadily poured in, and this in much larger 
numbers than any emigration from Missouri, Kentucky, or 
the other Southern States. Two armed bodies of young men 
were sent, one from South Carolina and one from Georgia, in 
the foolish hope, that they might sweep back the steady flood 
of Northern emigration, after it had once turned in the 
direction of Kanzas. As the year 1855 passed, it became 
certain that the great principle of the Kanzas-Nebraska Act 
was not to be sustained by the United-States Government. 
The pretence under which that act Avas passed was that of the 
theoiy named " squatter sovereignty " by Gen. Cass ; namely, 
that the inhabitants of the Territory themselves should dictate 
its institutions. Relying on that theory, our emigrants had 
removed there, and other emigrants from the Northern States; 
and so much more prompt is the emigration of freemen than 
that of masters and slaves together, that there was probably 
never a moment in the history of Kanzas when the hona-fide 
settlers would not have voted to maintain freedom rather than 
slavery. The elections of November, 1854, and of March, 
1855, were conducted by persons who crossed, for the elec- 
tion-days, from Missouri, and elected non-residents to the 



13 



posts designated. As the year 1855 passed by, however, it 
appeared that the Administration of the United States was 
satisfied with this fraudulent control of the Kanzas elections, 
and that the Territory was not to be left fairly to the wishes 
of its inhabitants. To maintain the fraudulent votes, the 
President was obliged to remove successively Governor after 
Governor of his own appointment ; for every demonstration 
of the popular will of Kanzas showed that the Administration 
at Washington had raised a spirit it had not meant to raise 
in calling " squatter sovereignty " into being. The indigna- 
tion of the Government fell, in proportion, upon this Company, 
which, in the organization of emigration, had taken hold of 
the very principle of the Kanzas-Nebraska Act, and had fol- 
lowed it out legitimately and honestly ; and at last, on the 
20th of May, 1855, the United-States Marshal of Kanzas, act- 
ing under orders from Washington, entered the city of Law- 
rence, in command of the companies of South Carolinians and 
Georgians, whom he had sworn into service as an armed posse 
of the United-States Government, and burned to the ground 
the Free-State Hotel, then just finished, as being in itself an 
offence against the Government and laws of the United 
States. In destroying this building, and the ofiices of the 
"Free -State" and " Herald -of- Freedom " newspapers, he 
acted, he said, under the authority of writs issued by the 
first District Court of the United States. The grand jury at 
Lecompton had indicted them as nuisances, and the Court 
had ordered them to be destroyed. No such destruction of 
property has yet been wrought as punishment of the rebels 
now in arms against the Government, as the Administration of 
1856 ordered as our punishment for opposing its plans. The 
hotel had just been completed at a cost of twenty-five thou- 
sand dollars. It was the finest building for such a purpose 
west of St. Louis. It was intended as a fit rendezvous for 
families of emigrants, at the most convenient point in the 
State, while they " prospected," or made other arrangements 



u 



for taking up their lands. The first public dinner ever served 
in it was the dinner given to the United-States Marshal and 
his staff of office, who then proceeded to destroy it in the 
name of the President of the United States. 

It is to be remarked here, that, up till the spring of 1856, the 
emigrants from New England to Kanzas had gone with that 
confidence in law which is a characteristic of New England. 
Many of them had opposed the Kanzas-Nebraska Act ; but, 
now that it was law, tliey supposed it would be carried into 
effect, and went, relying on that protection of the Govern- 
ment which they never received. It is believed that not one 
military weapon of any sort was carried into the Territory 
by our emigrants of the years 1854 and 1855. Even the sup- 
ply of powder and shot-guns for killing game, and of revolv- 
ers for personal defence, was what, in any other community, 
would be called singularly small ; and when, in the sad 
winter of 1855 and the spring of 1856, the settlers were 
obliged to defend themselves against marauders of ever}'- 
grade, they were almost without Aveapons with which to 
do so. 

The destruction of our hotel, and of the house of our 
agent in Lawrence, showed to the country that the Emigrant 
Aid Company was the especial object of the indignation of 
the Government. The interest which we could not ourselves 
excite in our own plans was aroused by the quick jealousy 
of the Administration and its crusade against us. The im- 
mediate accessions of subscription to our stock, indeed, were 
not more than thirty thousand dollars ; but the new impulses 
given to emigration all favored our enterprise. Our agents 
became, as they deserved to be, the leaders of the people of 
Kanzas. Our office in Boston actively disseminated the infor- 
mation necessary to all who wished to emigrate. In this 
crisis, we did not lose sight of the objects of our organiza- 
tion. Though arms and ammunition became a necessity to 
the people of Kanzas, all the more pressing because of their 



15 



early misplaced confidence, Ave knew that it was not within 
our province to furnish them ; and as we had never given 
a cent to an emigrant, nor a plough nor a harrow to a colony, 
we did not now vary from our rule so far even as to give a 
pound of powder or a rifle to a community in need. We had 
confidence that organized emigration could take care of itself; 
and organized emigration has done so. 

The news of the " sack of Lawrence " was received by 
telegraph in Boston just on the eve of our annual meeting 
of May 27, 1856. The results of the active year which fol- 
lowed are stated in the Annual Report, dated May 26, 1857 ; 
from which the following extracts are taken: — 

"We met last year under most discouragins circumstance.*. It was 
a gloomy period in the history of Kanzas. The war of the Missouri 
invaders was at its height. Every day brought us new accounts of 
atrocities unparalleled in the annals of civilized communities. Bands 
of armed men had invaded the Territory for the avowed purpose of 
'wiping out' every Free-State settlement. They had obtained entry 
into Lawrence by treadiery and deceit, sacked the town, seized the 
printing-press, and destroyed our new Free-State Hotel by cannon and 
fire. Those who dared to express a sentiment in favor of freedom 
were grossly insulted, and driven from their homes, or murdered in 
cold blood. An especial hatred was shown towards every thing connect- 
ed witli this Company. Our property was stolen or wantonly destroyed. 
The house of our agent at Lawrence was burned ; and our agents them- 
selves were seized and imprisoned on absurd and ridiculous charges^ 
or forcibly expelled from the Territory. AVhat rendered these outrages 
the more aggravating, was the belief that they were not only permitted, 
but were encouraged, by the Executive of the United States, to whom 
we had a right to look for protection. Some of the worst crimes were 
committed by persons holding high positions under the General Govern- 
ment, who, instead of being punished, were, in many instances, rewarded 
with offices of trust and emolument. 

"The Missouri River was closed to emigration by bands of ruffians, 
who seized upon persons and property without law; harassed and mal- 
treated peaceable emigrants, and compelled them to turn back, or seek 
a new and tedious route through Iowa to Kanzas. 



16 



" Our Company had been assailed on all sides. High officials of the 
National Government had denounced our organization. The President 
himself had lent his voice to the abuse of the Company, and to a repetition 
of the stale and oft-refuted slanders against it. A Committee of the 
Senate of the United States, either from intentional misrepresentation, 
or at least with unpardonable ignorance of its plan and purposes, had 
devoted the larger part of an elaborate report to a violent philippic 
against this Company, accusing us of being ' the cause of all the 
troubles in Kanzas.' There were not wanting those even in our own 
community who looked coldly upon us, as guilty of 'unwarrantable 
interference' in the affairs of Kanzas. 

" In the face of all these discouragements, the Company has steadily 
persevered in its course, without being turned from its purpose, either 
by the fear of Executive censure, or a desire to conciliate its avowed 
enemies or its lukewarm friends. 

" Meanwhile, great changes have taken place in the aspect of affairs. 
The pro'^pects for freedom in Kanzas have brightened, the invading 
army has been dispersed, new dwellings are built on the ruins of those 
which were destroyed, new towns are rising on all sides, confidence 
has revived, and business of all kinds is actively pursued. The value 
of property in the Territory is increasing ; and land, in the more thickly 
settled portions, is sold at a price often double, and in many instances 
more than quadruple, that of a year ago. The Missouri River is 
a'^ain open to emigration. The ruffians on that river, who once as- 
saulted our friends and pillaged our property, are now desirous of peace. 
If not ashamed, they are afraid, and stand in wholesome awe of a 
future day of reckoning. Even in Missouri, there are laws against 
robbery, piracy, and murder; and, though judgment may sleep for a 
time, tliese crimes must eventually meet with their just reward. 

" Tliat these changes are not owing to any change in the policy of 
the Government towards Kanzas, is evident to all who have watched 
the progress of events. That policy has been constantly directed 
towards tlie ' crushing-out ' of the spirit of liberty : and, even to the 
present moment, those officials, who have been most notorious for their 
crimes against Kanzas, have been retained in office, or appointed to 
new and important posts ; while those who have shown the slightest 
sympathy with the Free-State settlers have been forced to resign, or 
summarily removed from their places. The improvement in the con- 
dition of the Territory is to be attributed solely to the wise and prudent 
counsels, and the brave and determined resistance to oppression, which 



'17 



have, throughout the contest, distinguished the course of the Free-State 
inhabitants. 

" The present population of Kanzas is estimated at fi-ora seventy to 
eighty thousand ; but the tide of emigration now pouring into the 
Territory will soon swell the number beyond all calculations of ours. 
We have it on the authority of the President of the- Pacific Eailroad, 
that the number of emigrants passing over the road towards Kanzas, 
since the opening of navigation, has averaged one thousaud per day. 
Tlie overhmd emigration tiirough Iowa and Nebraska is also very con- 
siderable. If the settlement of Kanzas continues at this rate, it will not 
much longer need any assistance from Emigrant Aid Companies. 

" The fact cannot now be questioned, that a very large proportion of 
actual inhabitants of Kanzas, as well as of the later emigrants, are in favor 
of the establishment of free institutions there. Estimates vary as to 
the relative preponderance of Free-State inhabitants ; but no well- 
informed person will now put the proportion at. less than three-fourths, 
while many place it as high as nine-tenths, or even nineteen-twentieths, 
of the entire population. Indeed, tlie party in Kanzas who are in 
favor of making it a Slave State is reduced to a liandful, composed 
chiefly of Government officials, or those desiring to become such. There 
is, no doubt, a much larger party beyond her borders, who have deter- 
mined to introduce slavery there at all hazards ; but, while the vast 
majority of her population have decided otherwise, we may well await the 
result with confidence. We may be comparatively indifl'erent as to 
what institutions politicians in Missouri or at Washington may decide 
to be best suited to her condition. Even if, by political manoeuvring 
and fraudulent voting, it shall be made to appear that a slave constitu- 
tion is desired by the inhabitants of Kanzas, and she should be 
unhappily admitted to the Union under a false flag, she will at once 
and for ever repudiate that constitution, as soon as her people have 
liberty to act for themselves, without the interference of the General 
Government. The existence or non-existence of slavery in a State 
depends, not on the laws which are upon the statute-book, but- upon 
the laws written on the hearts of the people. 

"There are at the present moment, probably, not over one hundred 
slaves in the whole Territory of Kanzas. This species of property is 
held by too uncertain a tenure to make it a desirable investment for 
the settler. The institution of slavery is not well adapted to the 
climate of Kanzas ; it does not suit the views of her people ; it can 
never take root on her soil. The attempt to force it upon her is an 

3 



18 



inexpressible outrage, and can never succeed so long as her people 
remain true to themselves and to their principles. 

" In view of the present condition of Kanzas, but three years ago a 
wilderness, now teeming with a busy and intelligent population, your 
Committee may be pardoned for dwelling with pride and satisfaction 
upon the reflection, that this grand result has been chiefly owing to the 
operations of the New-England Emigrant Aid Company. Other asso- 
ciations, of' later date, have materially aided the cause. There have 
been many noble, zealous, and successful co-workers in the field. The 
State and National Kanzas Committees and the Clothing Committees, 
first organized by the suggestions and personal etForts of members of 
this Board, have rendered invaluable aid to the settlers : but this Com- 
pany took the initiative at a time when its course was looked upon 
with distrust and suspicion ; and it encountered only odium and hosti- 
lity from many who should have been its friends. It has never 
relaxed its efforts, nor abandoned its confidence in the final result, 

" The truth of the great principle of the immense benefits to coloni- 
zation from the aid of associated capital planted in Mdvance of emigra- 
tion, to prepare the way for a civilized community, has never been so 
fairly tried and so fully proved as by this Company. Its success has 
been achieved in the face of the most vexatious opposition from the 
General Government and from the whole slave-power of the country. 

"Your Directors would not be understood to claim that the present 
population of Kanzas, or even any considerable portion of it, has been 
sent to the Territory directly through the agency of the Company ; but 
they do believe, that but for the encouragement given to emigration in 
the early days of its settlement, by the operations of the Company 
in planting capital there, in diffusing information for emigrants, in com- 
bining them into parties, and aiding them to establish the first towns 
on its soil, that Territory would be in a condition nearly as wild and 
uncultivated as when, in the summer of 1854, our first party of brave 
New-England men pitched their tents at Lawrence, and made that 
town the cradle of a new Free State. They believe, moreover, that, 
if any progress had been made, it would have been in the wrong direc- 
tion ; that slavery would, ere this, have established its foothold on the 
land ; and that nothing short of a revolution could have then changed 
its fate. It is only the organized emigration, first set on foot by this 
Company, which has saved it to freedom for ever. 

" We conclude this Report with a short summary of the principal 
transactions of the Company since the last annual meeting. 



19 



" It will be recollected that we had then three mills lying idle in 
Kanzas City on account of tlie distnrbances in tlie Territory. These 
were at one time thrown into the Missouri River by a party of the 
so-called friends of 'law and order,' who had conceived a prejudice 
against our Company. It was, however, afterwards found to be for the 
interest of those merchants, who had had the mills in charge, to draw 
them out again, and to hold them subject to our order. The largest of 
these mills has been disposed of, on favorable terms, to the Qiiindaro 
Association, and the price paid in city shares, which are now selling at 
a large advance on the cost. We have, by this arrangement, a valuable 
interest in the new and flourishing town of Quindaro. Another mill is 
to be set up, at Wabonse, — the location of a colony from New Haven ; 
and anotlier at the new Free-Slate town of Atchison, on the IMissouri 
River. The P^xecntive Committee have also lately purchase<l two new 
mills, whicli were shipped in April, and are now on their way to the 
Territory. 

" We have sent to Kanzas, in all, ten valuable sawmills, besides a 
number of gristmills and other machinery. The good effect of these 
has been incalculable. Wherever a sawmill has been established, a 
town has arisen ; and the result has shown the truth of the claim so 
often made by this Company, that these mills would be among the most 
efficient means in promoting the settlement of Kanzas, 

" Immediately on leai-ning of the destruction of the Fiee-State 
Hotel at Lawrence, your Directors determined to rebuild it at once on 
the old site. For this purpose, a new subscription-list was immediately 
opened, and a considerable sura obtained. The foundations of the new 
hotel were laid amid great rejoicings of the people of Lawrence. 
The amount sui)scribed was faithfully applied, and an additional amount 
appropriated from the general fund for the same object. The advan- 
tage of this step, both in affording work and pay to those who were in 
actual need, and by its moral effect in encouraging the settlers, can 
hardly be overestimated. The Executive Committee have since 
thought it expedient to accept the offer of Col. S. W. Eldredge, the 
lessee of the former hotel, and a sound Free-State man, to purchase 
the hotel-lot, with the foundations already laid; he engaging to erect 
thereon a first-class hotel, of stone or brick, at least equal in dimensions 
and cost to tliat which the Company had pi'oposed to build. This 
arrangement is considered a favorable one, as it insures the completion 
of a structure which is deemed of much importance ; while it leaves the 
funds, which would have been required for this purpose, free for other 
useful investments. 



20 



" As soon as possible after tlie sack of Lawrence, and the destruction 
of our hotel and other property, your Directors forwarded to Congress 
a petition for remuneration for our losses, and redi'ess of grievances. 
This petition was referred to committees in both branches ; and, in the 
House of Representatives, a bill was reported favorable to our claim : 
but no further action was taken. The claim will be again pressed 
before Congress; and the justice of our demand is so evident, that we 
may reasonably expect fi*om that body, in due time, a full and sufficient 
compensation for our losses. 

" One of the most important transactions lately eifected by the agents 
of the Company is the purchase by Mr. Pomeroy, in connection with 
the agent of a Cincinnati association, of a controlling interest in the 
town of Atchison, on the Missouri River, with the whole property and 
good-will of the ' Squatter Sovereign,' heretofore the most violent 
and unscrupulous advocate of slavery in Kanzas, and the aider and 
abetter of the woi'st outrages on its inhabitants. This paper has now 
become a Fi-ee-State paper, under the editorship of Messrs. Pomeroy 
and M'Bratney. The name of Atchison will be changed to one more 
expressive of its new character as a settlement of Free-State men.* 
As Gen. Pomeroy is himself present at this meeting, and will ad- 
dress the stockholders, it is unnecessary for your Directors to enter 
into farther particulars on the important bearings which this transac- 
tion must have on the future operations of the Company. 

" Since the last annual meeting, the stock of the Association has been 
increased by the sum of thirty-seven thousand dollars. Of this, about 
twenty thousand dollars have been subscribed by gentlemen connected 
with the shoe-and-leather trade of this city. These gentlemen have 
shown a warm interest in the cause in which we are engaged, and their 
liberal subscriptions have afforded the most timely and encouraging 
assistance to those who have had the management of the affairs of the 
Company. It is intended that the two first towns established by the aid 
of these funds shall be distinguished by the names of families promi- 
nent in their cotmection witli this profession. 

" Your Directors cannot close this Report without expressing their 
sense of the great obligations of this Company to its faithful and 
efficient agents (Messrs. Pomeroy, Robinson, and Branscomb), who 
have had the conduct of its affairs in the Territory. By their deter- 

* This intention has never been carried out. The name of Atchison remains as an 
interesting historical monument. At the date of this Report, the name of Wilmot was 
proposed as a substitute. 



21 



mined aiul resolute course under circumstances of the greatest difficulty 
and danger, by their energy and discretion and good judgment, they 
have rendered inestimable benefits to Kanzas and to this Company. 
Since the late annual meeting, Dr. Charles Robinson has been com- 
pelled, by the ])ressure of his public and private engagements, to resign 
his post as agent. Those who have been familiar with his course irom 
the beginning of our undertaking will not soon forget the important 
services which he has rendered to the cause of freedom in Kanzas." 

For the Committee. 

L. B. RUSSELL. 

With the transfer of Atchison, the only town in Kanzas 
which had ever been in the interest of the slave-party, to the 
agents of tliis Company, and tlie conversion of the " Squatter- 
Sovereign " newspaper to a policy more true to its name than 
that which it had hitherto advocated, all real opposition to 
the establishment of freedom in Kanzas was at an end. The 
policy of this Company had been proved successful. One 
more instance had been added to those of which history is 
full, that towns are the seminaries of freedom and of liberal 
institutions. By planting six towns in Kanzas, worthy of that 
name ; by encouraging the popular sentiment, which, in such 
times, must grow, — the Emigrant Aid Company had been 
the prime agent in that magnificent movement of a free peo- 
ple, by which the people of Kanzas, in face of all opposition, 
made her a Free State. The patience with which that people 
bore wrongs till the moment came to right them ; the dignity 
with which they asserted their claims as Americans ; the 
peace in which they lived among each other, when no law 
was administered ; the loyalty with which they supported the 
officers whom they had chosen ; and the bravery by Avhich, 
when the moment came, they asserted their rights on the 
field of battle, — can never be too highly extolled. The skill, 
discretion, and spirit of their leaders is matter of history. 
That leaders and people regarded this Company as indeed 
their friend in their great trial, appears in the fact, that our 



22 



first Agent, Dr. Robinson, was and is their first Governor ; 
our second Agent, Mr. Pomeroy, was and is one of tlieir first 
Senators in Congress ; and the last Agent whom we appointed, 
Mr. Conway, left our service to become their first Representa- 
tive. 

The Treasurer, Mr. Lawrence, in presenting his Annual 
Report on the 26tli of May, in the year 1857, resigned the 
ofiice in which he had so efficiently served the Company 
and the country. He indicated, at that time, the policy of 
closing, as soon as possible, the aftairs of the Company in 
Kanzas. 

His words were, — 

"You will find the Company free from debt, and its prosperity en- 
tire. Whatever may be the result to the stockholders, the shares have 
never had more value than at the present time. The main object for 
which the Association was formed — viz., the incitement of free emi- 
gration into Kanzas — has been successfully acco'mplished. The 
Corporation must hereafter be considered a land-company, and be 
managed as sucii. A speedy closing-up of its business seems to me to 
be the surest method of yielding a return of the money expended : and, 
in disposing of the property, much consideration appears to be due to 
our faithful agents ; and to them a preference should be given, if they 
are willing to become purchasers of the whole or any part of it. 

" In this connection, it will not be presuming too much for me to 
bear testimony to the assiduity and disinterestedness with which your 
Executive Committee have performed their labors in your behalf, and 
in behalf of tiie cause which we all have at heart. 

'"The result has proved their value. The Committee have devoted 
themselves to the interests of the Company, without regard to their 
ovvn. Notwithstanding the contrary has been stated, they have under- 
taken no private business or speculation in connection with the pro- 
perty of the Territory. No one of them, so far as I am informed, has 
had any interest, directly or indirectly, in any property in Kanzas, 
except what belongs to this Company; and there is no one of them 
who would not at any time, and who would not now, sacrifice his own 
share in this, and much more, to open the Territory to the labor and 
enterprise of our citizens, and to perpetuate there our free American 
institutions." 



23 

With regard to the general policy thus indicated by the 
Treasurer, there was no doubt in the minds of the Directors 
or of the Company. It had not been organized for the pur- 
poses of a land-company. It had never purchased land with 
money ; and the lands it held were such as it iiad received in 
payment for mills and engines and other improvements, which, 
with the advantages of its capital, it had introduced where 
they were needed, and for which the settlers had nothing but 
land to pay. At the same time, the Directors needed to cm- 
ploy all their capital in another direction. The sequel has 
proved, what they then feared, that it was a great misfortune 
that they were not able to do so. They had been in treaty 
with responsible persons in Western Texas, who had been 
eager to avail themselves of the advantages which this Com- 
pany could control, for the organization of the emigrants who 
were interested in that country. For a long period, the Di- 
rectors had been in correspondence with the German settlers 
already established there, and had widely circulated informa- 
tion through New England on the advantages offered to 
settlers in that region. On the 19th of June, 1857, the 
Special Committee on Western Texas reported in detail to 
the Executive Board, and urged that " now is the time for 
undertaking operations there." Nothing but the want of 
funds prevented our further action in that direction. 

But althougli the agents of the Company in Eanzas were 
pressed to sell our lands and other property whenever they 
could make sales for cash, this proved very difficult. Sales 
were made, however, to the extent of $8,225 ; while our rents 
received during the year amounted to |2,5 16.06. These 
figures show that the policy of closing the Kanzas property 
might have been successfully carried on, if but a temporary 
respite of prosperity should intervene between the distresses 
of that Territory. It was clearly not for our interest to sell 
on credit, though this is so largely the custom of the West. 
We wished to close our offices in Kanzas, and to save the 



2i 



necessity of maintaining any agencies. We could not, there- 
fore, sell for notes secured upon the land. Our orders to our 
agents were necessarily to sell for cash or its equivalent. Of 
these sales, we had made such a beginning, when the financial 
crisis of October, 1857, struck upon the country, first and most 
largely embarrassing the West. It checked at once and fatally 
our hopes of rapidly converting our property into money. 

The Territory experienced another blight, even more se- 
rious, when it appeared that the Federal Government was not 
yet satisfied with interference in its concerns. Every Gover- 
nor appointed by the President had proved, in turn, too scru- 
pulous for the President's wishes ; and even now, when it 
was certain as any thing could be that the people of Kan- 
zas had no slaves, and did not mean to have any, the inter- 
ference of the Government with its affairs continued. The 
constitution known as the Lecompton Constitution was pre- 
pared ; the point known by that name was selected as the 
capital ; and the fretting and persevering intrigues of the Na- 
tional Administration continued. Nothing could have contri- 
buted more to check emigration than such conduct, after it 
Avas certain that the great battle was won ; so that the great 
tide of national enthusiasm could no longer be expected to 
pour in that direction. 

Notwithstanding these obstacles, the Directors succeeded 
in establishing their five mills, sjDoken of in the last Report, 
at the several sites of Atchison, Claflin, and Batchelder. The 
last two were named, as suggested in that Report, for the two 
gentlemen of this city wlio were the largest contributors to 
the Shoe-and-Leather Dealers' Kanzas subscription. 

Meanwhile the taxes upon our property in Kanzas were 
large, and the expenses of our administration there were con- 
siderable. Our property was still estimated, notwithstanding 
our occasional sales, as worth more than $130,000 ; which was 
our whole stock-account in May, 1858. But the higher the 
estimate placed on it, the higher the taxation ; and we, of all 



parties, were necessarily the last who should flinch in our 
pa^nnents for the necessary expenses of infant communities. 

The consequence of these necessary payments was, that 
in the next year, while our receipts from our Kanzas property 
were $3,474 (of which about 11,000 were for sales), our 
expenses were $14,724.95, To meet these expenses, a loan 
of $10,000 had been contracted, — the first debt Avhich we 
had been obliged to contract. The charges of the Company 
had been reduced, — only one agent in the Territory being em- 
ployed ; and we looked forward to better times, with the hope 
that our sales in the Territory might repay our debt and 
re-iinburse our capital. 

At the annual meeting in Maj^, 1859, our Agent, Judge 
Conway, reported, that, whilst some of the property had de- 
preciated, other portions had appreciated, in value ; so that, 
in the aggregate, he considered the whole worth somewhat 
more than the previous estimates. 

Our anticipations, however, were again destined to be 
disappointed. Emigration into the Territory was materially 
checked by the enthusiasm which turned to Pike's Peak. 
Many of the people of Kanzas themselves emigrated thither. 
In the next year, our rents were $1,832.99 ; our sales were 
$5,157.25. Our taxes, however, were $1,446.17, — nearly as 
much as our rents ; and our expenses, though reduced as far 
as possible, were $5,797.48. This statement showed that we 
were not materially increasing our debts ; but we were not 
closing our operations. 

At the meeting of the Company on the 29th of May, 1860, 
these facts appeared from the Treasurer's Report. The Secre- 
tary reported at the same time, that — 

" The depressed state of business had interfered with effecting sales ; 
and that, consequently, little had been done in the way of disposing of 
property. The Directors, as heretofore, still entertain the opinion, that 
the property should not be sacrificed by forced sales at such an unpro- 
pitious period as the present." 

4 



26 



To the calamities which had checked the growth of Kanzas, 
and disappointed the expectations which, in 1857 and 1858, 
we had a right to entertain, was added, in the summer of 
1859, tliat of famine. The Territory which, in the spring 
of 1854, was a wilderness; in the spring of 1855, a debatable 
ground, ravaged by banditti from Missouri; and, in 1856, the 
scene of active war, waged by the Government of the United 
States against its settlers, — had been, in 1857, prostrated by 
the great financial crisis; in 1858, discouraged b}^ the imposi- 
tion of a constitution foreign to its wishes ; in 1859, stripped 
of thousands of its most active pioneers by the gold tempta- 
tions of >the Western mountains; and now, in 1860, was to 
undergo noAv horrors in hunger, amounting at times to actual 
starvation. For four months, no rain fell in large parts of the 
Territory. The whole energies of the river-towns, where 
some moisture had saved a part of the crop, were necessarily 
devoted to transporting food to the interior. Large numbers 
of settlers left the Territory'. The generous contributions of 
the benevolent did not fail the people of Kanzas. Relief so- 
cieties and the churches of the East generously sent forward 
money and provisions ; but, as may well be supposed, this 
condition of things was not favorable to a disposal for cash of 
the land and mills and other property of this Company. 

At the meeting of the Compan}^ on the 28th of May, 1861, 
it appeared, therefore, that the rents in Kanzas had fallen to 
$915.09 ; that the sales had fallen to $520.75. The expenses 
had also been reduced to less than $4,000 ; but the account 
still showed, that, under the circumstances @f Kanzas, it was 
almost imj^ossible for non-resident landholders to make sales 
for cash. In that position we stood. Meanwhile our engines 
and mills were, of course, deteriorating. That at Ossawatomie 
had been burned to the ground by the invaders of Kanzas, in 
the attack on that place, Avhich has become historical. At the 
time the Company met, in May, 1861, the whole nation was 
preparing itself for the great war, in which we still are, for 



27 



which our struggle in Kanzas had been the successful appren- 
ticeship. The people of Kanzas were making already those 
sacrifices in the great cause which have placed their new-born 
State among the foremost. They have had the honor of con- 
tributing to the volunteer army the only companies of soldiers 
which had already studied war in practice, and learned vic- 
tory under fire. Under these circumstances, therefore, in 
May, 18G1, the Directors were obliged to propose a sale of all 
the Kanzas property together, at a price much below what it 
had cost us. 

They made this proposal in the following Report : — 

Boston, May 28, 1861. 
To tlie Directors of the New-England Emigrant Aid Company. 

The Executive Committee report, that, since the last annual meet- 
ing, but httle change has taken place in the Company's property or 
condition. . . . 

The expectations of last spring, in respect to sales of land, have 
been almost entirely unreahzed, owing mainly to the short crop which 
prevailed throughout that part of the country, with the consequent 
stagnation of business, and poverty of the people. We have sold only 
one lot, in Atchison, for a hundred and fifty dollars, and exchanged the 
mill and site in Wabonse for a farm. 

There have been no additions to the Company's property duri^ngthe 
year. 

In January, the Territory was admitted into the United States sis 
the State of Kanzas ; when a Free-State representative to Congress, 
Governor and Legislature, immediately took their seats. Of the four 
agents that the Company have had in Kanzas during the six years of 
our work there, one occupied tlie Congressional chair, one the ^Gov- 
ei'noi''s, and a third has since been elected to the United-States Senate. 
These facts occurring entirely without management on the part of the 
Company, among a population of fully a hundred thousand, indicate 
unmistakably, that the effect of the Company's operations, in helping 
to place the State of Kanzas in the position now occupied, has no- 
where and at no time been exaggerated, although the nature of the 
operations themselves had been much misrepresented. 

With the settlement of the Territory by a large and efficient majo- 



28 



rity of Free-State men, and its admission as a Free State, the especial 
purpose of the Company, at least as respects that Territory, may be 
said to be entirely successful and complete. Still, the Executive Com- 
mittee have always borne in mind, that our enterprise, to be perfect in 
result, must be a success financially as well as in every other way. It 
must be shown that the Free-State system of settling new country pays 
well in money. This we do not absolutely despair of doinjT, even in 
the case of Kanzas; but the burnings and robberies of 1855 and 185G, 
the financial crash of 1857, tlie political oppressions of 1858 and 1859, 
and the drought of 18G0, have formed a series of events adverse to such 
a result, most difficult to struggle against. 

In the course of the year, it was at one time thought advisable by 
some members of the Executive Committee to sell the whole property 
for twenty-five thousand dollars cash ; and a plan was proposed, and 
some steps taken toward carrying it out; but, being discouraged by the 
President and by some members of the Executive Committee, it was 
afterwards abandoned. 

It is desirable that some plan should be adopted by the Directors 
for relieving the Company from debt, and releasing from their respon- 
sibility those gentlemen who have lent the credit of their names to the 
Company. 

Besides the property in Kanzas and Missouri, the Company has a 
claim upon Government for twenty-five thousand dollars. For the 
urging of this claim, all proper steps were taken ; and, during the last 
session of Congress, the Chairman of the Committee on Claims was 
constantly ready to give the claim prominence when occasion should 
allow ; but no opportunity arose to advance it. 

At the same time, the Ti-easurer's Report showed that the stock 
account was $130,340; that there had been received in donations 
$8,435. IG; that the debts of the Company were about $14,000 ; and 
that there were no immediate resources with which to pay these debts 
as they came due. They were generally in the form of notes of the 
Company, indorsed by different members of the Board of Directors 
who had generally lent their credit to sustain ours. 

(Signed) C. J. HIGGINSON, 

In behalf of the Executive Committee. 

At this meeting, after a long discussion of the position of 
the Company's affairs, it was, — 



29 

1. Voted, Tlmt we authorize and recommend to the Directors to 
sell all the property of tlie Company in Kanzas and Missouri, provid- 
ed that all debts and liabilities of the Company siiall be liquidated by 
such sale ; and provided also that the sale shall be by public auction, of 
which previous notice shall be sent to every stockholder. 

2. Voted, Tiiat, when the Directors of the Company issue notice to 
the stockholders of the sale proposed under the above votes, they shall 
also give notice, that if any stockholders desire to form a new Com- 
pany, with a capital of twenty thousand dollars, for the purchase of 
the property, they be requested to send their names to the Secretary, 
with the amount they wish to subscribe in such new Company, within 
four weeks from the date of this notice. 

The following Reports from the Treasurer and the Direc- 
tors, made to the stockholders at their annual meeting on 
the 27th of May, 18G2, will show how the operations of the 
Company in Kanzas were closed under the directions thus 
given : — 

TREASURER'S REPORT. 

Since the last annual meeting, when the undersigned was chosen 
Treasurer for the purpose of paying off the debts of the Company by 
a sale of its property, he has diligently applied himself to that busi- 
ness, in co-operation with the Executive Committee. 

In July last, an offer of twenty thousand dollars was obtained for 
the property in Kanzas and Missouri, provided one-half of the amount 
should be received in a note secured by mortgage. Time was to be 
allowed for an examination of the lands by the purchasers ; and an 
arrangement was made for converting the mortgage-note into cash, so 
as to be available for the payment of debts. 

This last was to be accomplished by the offer of members of the 
Committee ; but the purchasers failed to complete the bargain, on 
account of the disturbed state of affairs in that region. 

An attempt was then made to secure a sale to such of the stockholders 
as should choose to subscribe, in sums not less than five hundred dol- 
lars, for that purpose ; the price to be paid being not less than sixteen 
thousand dollars, or the amount of the debts. A circular was issued 
to every one of the eight hundred stockholders, and the subscriptions 
received were twenty-eight thousand dollars : of these, the largest 



30 



portion was made by a few persons who were desirous to save the 
Company from pubHc faihire and bankruptcy, and who did not wish to 
become interested in a new organization. As it was directed by the 
vote of the stockholders that the sale should be public to themselves, 
it was found necessary to make public advertisement, and hold an 
auction in due form, though every stockholder had already been invited 
to subscribe. This sale was accordingly held, and the real estate in 
Kanzas and Missouri was sold for sixteen thousand one hundred and 
fifty dollars to a company of six persons who were unknown to the 
Executive Comniittee ; the agent of the subscribers bidding up to 
the sum of sixteen thousand dollars. 

Neither the Directors, nor the Executive Committee, nor the under- 
signed, have any interest, either directly or indirectly, in the purchase. 
No sale was made of the claim for twenty-five thousand dollars upon 
the Government of the United States for the destruction of the hotel 
in Lawrence. That remains, and is the only property belonging to 
the Company, except the cash on hand ($3,368.08). 

Satisfactory conveyances were made ; and, with the money received, 
the debts of the Company have been paid, so far as could be done 
from information received up to the present time. The principal 
portion of the debt remaining is due to the Secretary, whose absence 
has prevented its adjustment. 

In order that the stockholders may be assured that this sale was 
not made without an effort to obtain a delay until more auspicious 
times, it may be stated that an application was made to every one of 
the Directors to guarantee some portion of the debt, provided it 
could be extended for one year ; but only three made any response 
to this request. 

Having pei'formed the duty assigned him, the undersigned begs to 
resign the office of Treasurer, and respectfully declines to be a candi- 
date for re-election. 

AMOS A. LAWRENCE, Treasurer. 
Boston, May 27, 1862. 



31 



FUTURE OPERATIONS. 

In thus reporting- action with regard to the i)roperty of the 
Company at the West, the Directors also reported on the po- 
sition and duty of the Company regarding emigration into 
the Southern States. 

Their Report, after reviewing rapidly the history of the 
Company, closed with the following suggestions regarding 
its future agency : — 

The Executive Cofnmittee present this bri(!f review of our opera- 
tions in the last seven years, both as appropriate to the elose of our 
work in Kanzas, and as suggesting our office in the present aspect of 
the country. It should be remembered that the object of this com- 
pany is the organization of emigration. Theie is, through the old 
States, so general a desire to emigrate to States of better soil or mihler 
climate, that we need not stimulate that desire, still h-ss try to create 
it: but we ought to give it direction and instruction; and we can, by 
organizing the emigration which results from it, relieve it from some 
of its greater inconveniences. Almost all these inconveniences .spring 
from the loneliness of emigration, where individuals or families 
remove, unsupported by others. P,y such organization as we iiave 
hitherto successfully made, the emigrants enjoy from the very be"-in- 
ning the conveniences and advantages of companion^hip and social 
order. 

In the present condition of our country, your Directors are satisfied 
that an important exigency has arisen demanding precisely this action 
of the Company for the organization of emigration. There is undoubt- 
edly a general desire among the inhabitants of the Northern and 
Middle States to remove into the States south of them, which will soon 
welcome the introduction of fi-ee labor. Tliis desire manilests itself 
strongly among soldiers who have seen the beauty and fertility of those 
States, in their duty of occupation and protection; and it has com- 
municated itself to their friends with whom they have corresponded. 
Society in those States is, however, still so distui'bed, and in such angry 
temper, that no Northern settler will be welcome or comfortable, as 
yet, who goes alone. To be saved the animosities and tlie haidships of 



32 



lonely settlement, it is desirable that parties of settlers, furnishing to 
each other tlieir own society, and thus far independent of dissatisfied 
neighbors, should go out together. The conditions on wliich only land 
can be obtained point to the same organization. Lands already under 
cultivation are now oifered for sale in all the " Border States," at 
very low rates. If parties of settlers could buy in the large quantities 
which are ottered, it would prove that they could remove and establish 
themselves, in some instances, upon the lands, almost as clieaply as they 
have hitherto been able to make the expensive Western journey and 
take up the cheap wild lands of the Government. 

IJut sucli purciuises in the Border States are only possible when 
large tracts of land are sold. To enable tiie settler of small means 
to take a farm of a hundred acres, there needs tiie intervention of the 
organizers of emigration. Such a Coni[)an3' as ours, for instance, 
can bring together, upon one old plantation, twenty, thirty, or forty 
families, if necessary : it can arrange for them terms of payment as 
favoralde as those heretofore granted by the Government or the great 
railroad companies of t!ie West. 

Once more: the resumption of business in the South will lead to 
a new activity in those cities which are the appropiiate places for 
commerce and manufacture. Never was a time so ftivorable for intro- 
ducing into those cities the Northern workmen, whom they need in 
such numbers that they can support presses, schools, and churches 
true to their own principles and to the interests of freedom. But 
such work as this cannot be done by individuals: it requires the 
intervention of a Company like ours, working with a comprehensive 
view of all the objects to be attained. 

The Directors are satisfied, from the inquiries they have been able 
to make, that extensive estates can now be purchased in JNIaryland, 
and in the parts of Eastern Virginia occupied by our armies, for 
much less than their value a few months ago, and much less than 
tlieir probable value a few months hence ; and that even a small 
organized Northern emigration could have a great effect in calling 
public attention to the opportunities of settlement offered in those 
States. It is also likely, that by the action of Government, either by 
confiscation or by sales to secure fines or taxes, considerable quantities 
of land will be forced into the market in the Southern States, to 
which emigration from the North might profitably be directed. 

The Company, owing to its pecuniary condition, if for no other 
reason, is not able to undertake new operations requiring capital; 



33 

but whether it be thought, that, under other circumstances, it would 
be best for the Company to plant' one or two colonies on purchased 
plantations in Maryland, or to seek the co-operation of Government 
in putting colonies on land falling into its possession, there is no doubt, 
that, from its reputation and connections in New England, it is 
peculiarly fitted to obtain and circulate information on the subject 
of emigration to the South, and to act as an agency to stimulate and 
to direct it. 

The Directors, therefore, recommend that the organization be con- 
tinued for another year at least. 

This Report was accepted by the Stockholders ; and it was 
voted, that the Directors now to be chosen make such ar- 
rangements as are proposed for the organization of emigration 
into the Southern States. The following Board of Officers 
was then chosen for the year 1862-63: — 



©fficers of tfje Ne&j=3Englanti lEmfgrant ^tti Compang; 

Chosen May 27, 1862. 

JOHN CARTER BROWN, Providence President. 

R. P. WATERS, Beverly 



A. A. LAWRENCE, Boston 

M. BRIMMER, Boston Treasurer. 

C. J. HIGGINSON, Boston Secretary. 

Directors. 

OLIVER AMES, Jr., Easton. E. E. HALE, Boston. 

MARTIN BRIMMER, Boston. C. J. HIGGINSON, Boston. 

WM. C. BRYANT, New York. EDWIN D. MORGAN, Neav York. 

HORACE BUSHNELL, Hartford. SETH PADELFORD, Providence. 

S. CABOT, Jr., Boston. i LE BARON RUSSELL, Boston. 



N. DURFEE, Fall River. 
THOS. M. EDWARDS, Keene. 
Capt. FOOTE, Salem. 



K. P. WATERS, Beverly. 

J. P. WILLISTON, New Bedford. 



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